Saturday, August 15, 2009

Core Propulsion

This morning we ran with West Coast Road Runners at Mission Bay. It was nice & cool, and cloudy, so we had that going for us. Here's Todd group starting out. Photobucket Photobucket Todd's group ran eight miles today, but he ran six because he's still in recovery from his injuries. My group ran seven miles today, in the other direction from Todd's group. On the left is my friend Cathy. Photobucket We ran by the Hilton Mission Bay. Photobucket The bay on the left, right after I turned around at 3.5 miles. Photobucket The big story today is what happened after the 3.5 mile turnaround. My first three miles were average. I didn't get as much sleep as I had hoped, so I was feeling somewhat tired. After the 3.5 mile turnaround, I remembered something my friend Anne said about "Chi Running" on her blog, and how I found this article about it and read it. So I improved my posture, relaxed my shoulders, and tightened up my core muscles. Suddenly I felt like my running was totally effortless! I felt like my legs were propelling themselves forward and I was exerting very minimal effort compared to the first three miles. So I kept going, and going, and going. I ended up running faster my last three miles, with my fastest mile being the last and 7th mile. Not only that, but I looked at all my long run stats this year, and that was my fastest mile on a long run this year! Photobucket I really can't believe the difference it made to "run from the core". I was faster, stronger, and felt like I could go on forever. I consider this a breakthrough for me and I can't wait for my next long run to do it again. Tonight we had Todd's Toastmasters friend Ashley and her husband Andrew over for dinner. I had never met them before. Todd decided to start the food prep early today. He had all the prep bowls ready by early afternoon. Photobucket He marinated the beef and made a spice rub for it also, before putting it on the grill. Photobucket Then he made some Lemon-Scented Blueberry Cupcakes for dessert. Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket The icing is made from reduced-fat cream cheese. My favorite cake icing is made from cream cheese. Yum! Here's the rest of the menu. Photobucket Clockwise from left: Everything was delicious, but I did manage to save room and eat two cupcakes, LOL! Good thing I ran today!

8 comments:

  1. wow - what a interesting story about your run - this sounds great - and I can´t wait to her about your next run!!

    Fantastic shot´s as always.

    Todd made wonderful and yummy looking food!! I would love to taste it

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  2. That Core running thing sounds so cool. I could apply the same principles to life in general. For example, when I've gone to bed way too late the night before and I think the school day is going to be pure drudgery, I can improve my posture, relax my shoulders, take a deep breath and get on with the business. I'll try it this week!

    The food looks wonderful..I especially like the added blueberries on top of the cupcake icing...YUM! In all your spare time, y'all should print an annual cookbook of all the recipes you've tried throughout the year.

    Have a restful Sunday!

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  3. I'm so glad you discovered what I did about chi running. It really does make a big difference -- as you can show.

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  4. What a great race you had. It does make a difference running in such a beautiful place. Oh, those views! Christine, now that you mentioned the chi running I'm going to try it and as a beginner that information is going to help me to improve and build my running.
    Love the food!! Thank you;)
    Cler.

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  5. Sounds cool. You're going to have to teach me those techniques.

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  6. ummm....how far is to your house from Oklahoma, because that meal looks yummy!!

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  7. That is so interesting, about the chi running! I hope works just as good next time for you.

    Mmm, the food looks delicious as always. I must try to make icing on cupcakes, it makes them look so pretty. It's a little hard to tell from the pic, but your blueberries looks a lot bigger than the one I pick in our forest. Cool!

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  8. Hi Christine! Haven't been to my Google Reader much since I came back so I am going backwards reading posts. Anyway, I bought this book Born to Run and so far it's been an amazing read. The guy's writing is pretty easy to read and though I have no interest in running, it's pretty fun reading his adventures. If you haven't heard of it yet, you can check it out here (and maybe snatch it for your Kindle, lol):
    http://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-Greatest/dp/0307266303/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250739270&sr=8-1

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